Jews in Sweden have testified to an increasingly hostile atmosphere, with many saying they are frightened to go out on the streets wearing anything that might identify them as Jews. While the problem stems partly from radical Muslim immigrants, Sweden's government, newspapers, and churches are all failing to behave responsibly.
VIENNA – Last month, firecrackers were thrown at the only synagogue in the Swedish city of Malmö, breaking three windows. The day before, a bomb threat had been left at the building, warning of what was about to happen. Two weeks previously, another attack was launched against the same synagogue.
For months, local Jews have testified to an increasingly hostile atmosphere, with many saying they are frightened to go out on the streets wearing anything that might identify them as Jews. Earlier this year, Daniel Schwammenthal, writing in The Wall Street Journal, explained why in the starkest possible terms: “Screaming ‘Sieg Heil’ and ‘Hitler, Hitler,’ a mostly Muslim mob threw bottles and stones at a small group of Jews peacefully demonstrating for Israel at this town’s central square last year. Worshippers on their way to synagogue and Jewish kids in schools are routinely accosted as ‘Dirty Jews.’”
Malmö police say that, of the 115 hate crimes recorded in the city in 2009, 52 were aimed at Jews or Jewish institutions. Anti-Semitism is back, and what is taking place in Malmö is merely an extreme manifestation of what is happening across the whole of Sweden.
VIENNA – Last month, firecrackers were thrown at the only synagogue in the Swedish city of Malmö, breaking three windows. The day before, a bomb threat had been left at the building, warning of what was about to happen. Two weeks previously, another attack was launched against the same synagogue.
For months, local Jews have testified to an increasingly hostile atmosphere, with many saying they are frightened to go out on the streets wearing anything that might identify them as Jews. Earlier this year, Daniel Schwammenthal, writing in The Wall Street Journal, explained why in the starkest possible terms: “Screaming ‘Sieg Heil’ and ‘Hitler, Hitler,’ a mostly Muslim mob threw bottles and stones at a small group of Jews peacefully demonstrating for Israel at this town’s central square last year. Worshippers on their way to synagogue and Jewish kids in schools are routinely accosted as ‘Dirty Jews.’”
Malmö police say that, of the 115 hate crimes recorded in the city in 2009, 52 were aimed at Jews or Jewish institutions. Anti-Semitism is back, and what is taking place in Malmö is merely an extreme manifestation of what is happening across the whole of Sweden.